My short trip to Finland! In English my friends :D

Tiki (funny accident that it means the game in Duch - siis hippa! Okei se ilmeisesti kirjotetaan "Tikkie", mut lausutaan ihan samalla tavalla.), I and Bim is the one on the ground :)

Helloooo there!

Greetings from amazing Finland, though I'm already in the Netherlands :D First I want to say that there must be at least some, probably quite many, mistakes in this text but I don't mind (that much) - hope you don't mind either. I just want to tell you something about my sweet home country and have the courage to publish something in English! Whooooo! :D A month ago it would have been more scary than it is now - thank you for talking to me in English and making me more comfortable with it! 

So as you probably noticed, this post is mostly meant to my new or other English speaking friends, pistän piakkoin tekstiä taas suomeksi ja kyllähän tästäkin (toivottavasti, hehe) ymmärtää vaikken voikkaan käyttää suomenkielisiä lausahduksia ja sanontoja :D

(Btw, on my way back I had a new Duch friend! We shared my ryebread :D)

On Saturday my family picked me up from Helsinki-Vantaa airport and we went straight away to my aunts birthday party. We had much fun first at her place and then dining together in a restaurant (called Kolme kruunua 'three crowns'). It was very nice to see my relatives "all" at the same time! 

(Photo token by my cousin Tiina.)
She turned 60 and we were singing "Paljon onnea vaan"...

...though I wanted to do something special so I practiced "Lang zal ze leven" and sang it to her. Also Duch amaryllis bulb and stroopwafels were something I wanted her to have just like I want you to taste my "presents" from Finland ;D After delightful conversations my Mom, sister, brother and I left (father and bigger brother stayed - we had two cars) to see how our dogs were doing! 

(These pictures we took on Sunday!) 

Tiki's bottom and Bim. Btw Bim is Tiki's son :D

I'm not sure if they were happier to see me than I was to see them - I was extremely happy XD Bim stayed on my lap almost all the time when we were indoors, cute little boy - I sometimes call him "mun Miäs" and it means "my Man" though it's commonly wrote like "mies" not with "ä" :D

Home street for 9 years of my life. Palojoki is the name of the village <3 (Palo is 'a fire' and joki is 'a river'.)

My sister Anni while we had a walk in a forrest near by :)

So pretty, calm and homely.

It was snowing almost all the time so now there is much more snow! I'm happy that I saw some of it, I really do like snow :) 

Fan fact: There is a huge amount of words in Finnish that means snow. I can't even say for sure how many... at least over 30 that I know though someone said over 100! You can check a list from here in Finnish or from here you can find some explanations in English for the words in a funny way! (And here is some more if you want to learn Finnish, hehehehe... I could continue this for ever though I'm not going to do that, don't worry :D )

Tiki didn't want to come to the pic :P But there is my dearest sister and "mun Miäs" <3

The moment when you are trying to make the first snow angel of the year and the dog is quite exited about that :D

The next thing is something very Finnish and quite extreme:

Avantouinti / ice swimming!

We weren't able to take a photo of me swimming, sorry, but these unidentified ladies may help you to visualize my experience.

Oh dear how it felt so good. I went to Sääksjärvi (a lake or infact the biggest spring in Finland) with my father and sister to have sauna and ice swimming time with them. It was lovely though were in a hurry so we only went to the sauna first, then swimming (or I was there 10 sec - maybe not swimming haha) and because we didn't have time to go sauna anymore we went swimming again and then had only shower. Refreshing! :D 

(Aaaand because I guess you want to know how cold the water was, here is the answer: it was +0,25°C and there was some ice also - lovely! And guess what, my parents do that every week once or twice throughout the winter time...)

Happy me, as you see? :D

I'm grateful for having you as my friend(s) here. At first I felt lonely 'cause I knew no one but now it's different and sometimes I simply don't have enough time for being with everyone I'd like to be with! Oh dear (saying that has became a habit...) how happy I am having such a wonderful people who with I can talk, share hugs and have fun. Thank you for making me feel welcome and accepted! 

Next trip to Finland is 24.12.-3.1., I already have the flights :) It was awesome to be at home, go for a walk with pyjama pants (yes, I do it quite often in Palojoki and no one even notices that) and quilted jacket on, have some family time and eat (some of) my favorite foods (pictures below)! Thanks also to Inka that I had the opportunity to see "Tiki's grandchildren", the puppies were amazingly cute <3

Karjalanpiirakoita - the dough is made of rye flours and it's filled with rice porridge.  On top we put "eggbutter", lekkkeeeeer!

Kiitos perhe <3 ("Thank you my family.")

A beefsteak, garlic potatoes and my Dad's special sauce!! Heel lekkeeer!

That's (almost) it. 

Thanks for reading, I hope you liked it :) See you soon(ish?)!

With hugs, 

Emma

Ps. My Duch-Finnish friend Timo wanted to come and pick me up from Schiphol on Monday! It was very cosy to know that I have friends here also and thereby it was easier to come back. Thanks Timo for the flowers also, that was a very nice surprise! :D 

Now my place is looking more like a home and a place where I want to be - see, I bought some candles also! Kivi-tuikut are lent by Kati :3